Walking To Church with Lila

As an aside, I was sitting on the couch with Jeanell, with my arm around her before coming to the computer to write this. "I think I'm going to go write a blog post," I told her. "Is that alright?"

"Yes, that's fine. Why would you need to ask my permission?" she replied.

"Because you're on my arm."

Anyway, our house in Elwood is just around the corner from the church we attend. This is convenient in that we can easily walk when the weather is good and are home soon after our meetings are over. We do have the disadvantage that if we miss a Sunday (not that we ever do), the Bishop, or anyone else interested, can easily look across the parking lot to see if it looks like we're home.

But today it was an advantage. The weather was nice. Jeanell had dressed Lila and done her hair so Lila and I were going to walk to church. The following is an account, as best I recall, of what happened and our conversation.

"Let's go Lila. Come hold my hand."

Lila reaches up and takes hold of the index and middle fingers of my right hand and we walk down the driveway. We get up to the road and check the mailbox (forgot to get the mail yesterday). As we begin walking down the side of the road, a Toyota Highlander drives past.

"Oooh, big car!" Lila exclaims.

"Stay close to me, Lila," I say.

We walk a little further and another car zooms past, in the opposite direction.

"Big car!" Lila shouts again. She then feels the need to run and begins to chant "run, run, run" while pretending to run next to me.

"Don't run," I tell her. "You'll get all tired and sweaty!" She looks up at me quizzically, probably because she has no concept of what it means to be sweaty. I, on the other hand, know the feeling all too well.

We walk a little further and she points to some tall, ugly weeds with a couple of yellow flowers. "Oooh, flowers! Cute!" she says excitedly.

"Those are weeds," I tell her. "Weeds?" she asks. "Yes, weeds."

We walk a little further and she sees a bunch of morning glory. "Oooh, flowers! Pretty!" she exclaims again. I don't bother to correct her this time.

We start to turn the corner and she catches sight of the church, which is maybe 100 yards away at this point. "The church! I found it!" she shouts.

We walk a little further and she lets go of my hand so she can go and climb on these three concrete cylinders in the church lawn (I'm not sure what purpose they serve), which has become a tradition each time we walk to church. She carefully climbs on the first, walks across it, steps to the second, then to the third, and finally jumps triumphantly back to the grass.

"You're a big girl!" I tell her.

We walk across the parking lot and she catches sight of the steeple. "Look!" she tells me, pointing excitedly.

I look.

We walk into the church, cut across the chapel, and go to the library because I need some copies made. I drop off the paper I need copied and tell them I'll return momentarily after I drop Lila off at nursery. "Thank you," I say. "Thank you," Lila repeats.

We arrive at the nursery and I open the door. Lila runs in and immediately gives Sister Sills a big hug. I quietly close the door.

How I love my sweet daughter and her wonder at the world.